Scientists May Have Found New Stars Powered by Dark Matter Called Dark Stars

One of the brightest and most fascinating objects in the universe is stars just like our sun. Most of them were made from a process called nuclear fusion, where hydrogen atoms fuse together, creating helium and releasing an unimaginable amount of energy that can reach even planets thousands of light years away.

However, scientists may have found another type of star that does not follow this observed phenomenon, but instead is powered by dark matter. A hypothetical star made from hypothetical particles.

What Are Dark Stars?

Instead of nuclear fusion, where hydrogen atoms are fusing, dark stars are thought to be powered by dark matter colliding with itself. Dark matter is simply a hypothetical form of matter that is believed to make up most of our universe. It does not interact with light or any electromagnetic radiation, which makes it invisible to us.

Scientists think they may have found three potentially dark stars using the James Webb Space Telescope. They noticed something that makes it likely that it is not a normal star that lights up like our sun does, via nuclear fusion, but instead might be powered by dark matter.

Read more: UT News

How Do Dark Stars Work?

Astrophysicists Discuss New Evidence for Dark Matter Stars

Unlike regular stars, just like our Sun, these dark stars are not burning hydrogen. However, they are still brighter and bigger because of the process of the dark matter particles colliding and releasing energy.

In specific environments, where dark matter is concentrated in high numbers, its annihilation is thought to potentially have more energy than a normal nuclear fusion. To form a dark star, these dark matter collisions will need to happen in a significant amount; only then will it shine brighter and bigger than other normal stars.

These type of stars is thought to have existed long before our Sun existed, possibly during the early formation of the universe. That is why scientists are continually studying them to try to find more evidence and unveil the secrets of how the first stars and galaxies came to be.

Read more: Science News

What Did Scientists Find?

The three stars thought to be dark stars were spotted using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) when they looked in the part of the sky during the JADES survey. The three objects were named JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z11-0.

JADES stands for JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey. It is one of the major programs in this telescope that allows scientists to observe very distant objects to the point that they are seeing back in time, when that part of the universe was much younger.

These objects were first identified to be galaxies, but due to some characteristics matching that of the hypothetical dark stars, scientists later began to suspect they might be something else completely.

They are bigger and brighter for their age, and they do not match what we currently know from the observed universe of how early galaxies or stars should be. Those are the main reasons why they thought it could be the first observed dark stars.

Read more: Scientific American

JWST May Have Found First Ever Evidence of Dark Stars

Author's Final Thoughts

The idea of dark stars changes how we think the universe started and evolved. If it were really true that there is dark matter and dark stars, then they could explain how some of the cosmic structures were formed. This discovery is fascinating, but it just leaves us with more questions and realizations that we still do not know much about the mysterious space and its beginnings.

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